Yanis Varoufakis on Question Time, Oct 2016 / BBCThe Telegraph — Speaking to the Telegraph, the former finance minister of Greece said: “My advice to Theresa May is to avoid negotiation at all costs. If she doesn’t do that she will fall into the trap of [Greek PM] Alexis Tsipras, and it will end in capitulation.”
Mr Varoufakis has warned Theresa May about the tactics the EU could use during negotiations
Prof Varoufakis, who spent months battling the debt collection policies of the EU-IMF Troika during Greece’s financial crisis, believes Brussels will exploit political divisions within Britain to reduce the chance of getting a fair Brexit deal.
After German chancellor Angela Merkel announced Britain should be more “constructive” when it comes to negotiating Brexit, Prof Varoufakis said this could be the beginning of an “EU runaround” for Theresa May.
Prof Varoufakis had a fraught relationship with the EU during his time as finance minister
He warned: “You won’t always know exactly who to talk to and that is deliberate.
“When you make a moderate proposal, they will react with blank stares and look at you as if you were reciting the Swedish National Anthem. It is their way of stonewalling. They will suddenly suspend talks claiming the need for more fact-checking.”
“What they are trying to do is to reduce any benefit that Theresa May will get out of the election and downplay her democratic mandate.”
This would safeguard trade and the City while also allowing the UK to withdraw from certain areas of the EU.
He concluded: “They could not refuse this. They wouldn’t have a leg to stand on.”
The news come as leaders of the remaining 27 EU members are expected to meet in Brussels today to set negotiating terms for Brexit talks.
In a letter to fellow EU Council members ahead of their Brussels summit, European Council president Donald Tusk wrote: “Before discussing our future, we must first sort out our past. Only once we collectively determine in the European Council that sufficient progress has been made on all these issues will we be in a position to hold preparatory talks on the future relationship with the UK.I would like us to unite around this key principle during the upcoming summit so that it is clear that progress on people, money and Ireland must come first.”
